Telephone numbers used for voice and data have been stored in many different media from printed hard copy (e.g. typewritten or handwritten ROLODEX.TM. cards) to a variety of electronic media (data bases utilizing computer programs with telephone systems, and the like). When a telephone number has been taken out of service for any reason, the calling party receives a voice message provided by the telephone company describing the reason why the placed call cannot be completed. The messages include: those indicating the phone number has been disconnected; all circuits are busy; and informational messages containing a change of phone numbers and/or area code which results from a relocation of the called party or an area code reorganization in which the called party resides. In the event that a call cannot be properly completed and where the calling party receives an intercept informational message containing a change of telephone number, the calling party must record, usually by hand, the information, hang up and place the call a second time. Additionally, the calling party must then update the old telephone number with the new telephone number in the telephone number storage system which they use. This process is manual, time consuming and error prone. In some automated telephony applications, such as broadcast facsimile services, the calling party being a computer system is unaware that the phone number has changed, and the system remains unaware until a manual review is performed where the new number is manually obtained and the database of telephone numbers updated. Before this manual updating, which may be an extended length of time, the distribution of information to such telephone numbers cannot be accomplished.
An example of prior art message handling apparatus and methods is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,266, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MESSAGE HANDLING IN COMPUTER SYSTEMS", to Boaz et al., and assigned to International Business Machines Corp. This patent discloses an integrated system for messages of different media types such as text, voice facsimile, video and image. The user can request another file server and its associated terminals to perform messaging services. For the majority of transactions, the protocol is independent of message body format, and this system can send or rout voice messages, data, ASCII code or E-mail with much flexibility. However, the system, when an intercepted voice message is received, requires human intervention to update the system as described above. This system when an unexpected intercept voice message is received, for example containing information that the telephone number has been changed, cannot function. This system has no mechanism for interpreting the unexpected voice message received, and no mechanism for following the information content to complete the call or record the changed telephone number or be aware that the telephone may be disconnected.
It is an object of the present invention to provide for automatically recognize and record any received intercept voice message from a called number.
It is another object of the present invention to decode or decipher the voice message for content and to respond to that content. It is yet another object of the present invention to determine if a new telephone number has replaced the called number, and to recognize that new number and to replace the old number with the new number.
Another object of the present invention is to decode an intercepted voice message to determine is the called number is disconnected or otherwise not is use.
It is yet another object of the present invention to record and report to the caller the status of the called numbers, including those numbers for which an intercept voice message was received.